One Billion Rising: An invitation to dance

I consider myself a fairly private person, but once in a while you just gotta put yourself out there: put your tush on the line and risk inelegance. But when it's for a good cause, it's not quite so difficult to let your ineptitude show. And anyway, you never know when or where Fun might turn up and make it all worth it.

So I have this friend who is something of a rabble-rouser, but certainly she rabble rouses in the gentlest of ways and in a spirit of love and community. She has taught me a lot over the years, about dancing, about respect, about speaking one's truth quietly and clearly. When she speaks, I listen. Sometimes I wince, grit my teeth, and close one eye, but I listen.

So that's how my attention settled on the global One Billion Rising event coming up on Thursday, February 14: Because someone who cares about peace and harmony and standing together as a community asked me to participate. And now I'm asking you...

What is One Billion Rising? One Billion Rising is an organization devoted to ending violence against women. According to the group's website: One in every three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime. That's one billion mothers, daughters, sisters, partners, and friends violated.

This February 14th will be the 15th anniversary of the organization, and the invitation has gone out: Women and those who love them are invited to Walk out, Dance, Rise up, and Demand an end to the violence.

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One Billion Rising is a global strike campaign, a call to men and women to refuse to participate in the status quo until rape and rape culture ends, an act of solidarity demonstrating to women the commonality of their struggles and their power in numbers, a refusal to accept violence against women and girls as a given, a new time and a new way of being.

One Billion Rising is the promise of men and women worldwide rising up to say, "Enough! The violence ends now."

One Billion Rising is also an invitation to dance. HEAL (Help End Abuse for Life), the Nest Domestic Violence Shelter, and EcoServants are the local sponsors of the Ruidoso area's One Billion Rising Valentine's Day event: a flash mob dance in Wingfield Park.

At approximately 12:15, DJ Pete will crank up the music and everyone is invited to join in and dance... but first, of course, you need to learn the routine. There are various practice sessions going on around town, with the final practice session to be held at noon on Wednesday at the Sanctuary on the River.

And because my rabble-rousing friend got Yours Truly involved, I will be teaching the routine at ENMU Ruidoso on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at 3 pm in the college's outer lobby. It's a simple line-dance-style routine to Aretha Franklin's classic song "Respect."

If you're unable to attend a live practice, you can google the youtube video: "Ruidoso Flash Mob Dance Steps" and learn it on your own. No excuses! If I can put myself out there, in all my inelegance, you can too.

One billion women violated is an atrocity. One billion women dancing is a revolution. Join us in Wingfield Park, Ruidoso, New Mexico, at Noon on Valentine's Day, ready to Dance.